Interpretation of Foster the People's song "Pumped Up Kick"

All the other kids with the PUMPED UP KICKS
= kids with New Shoes
=kids with great future ahead of them
= kids who used to picked on him

SUMMARY

READING Between the LINES

The Song is about Robert, a cowboy acting kid who found a gun is his cold loving father's closet. He's lost his reasoning, and took that gun and chased the kids who used to pick on him.

Reading Beyond the LINES

The song is about Robert, a confused kid. He doesn't know what's right from wrong, and he feels so unloved by his father. He was always so observant, that one day he discovered about his father's secret that cracked him open. All the pain everyone inflicted on him and all the lack of attention by his father made him burst out into anger. And he's gonna throw all his anger to all the other kids who he envies the most, them with functional parents, and them with bright futures ahead of them. Unlike himself.

I
"Robert's got a quick hand
He'll look around the room
He won't tell you his plan
He's got a rolled cigarette
Hanging out of his mouth he's a cowboy kid
Yeah found a six-shooter gun
In his dad's closet hidden in a box of fun things,
I don't even know what
But he's coming for you, yeah he's coming for you"

(Line 1,2,3) Robert is a kid who steals like a thief(quick hand).
(Line 4,5) He thinks he's like an outlaw(cowboy).
(Line 6,7,8) He found a six shooter gun, in his dad's closet.

II
Daddy works a long day
He'll be coming home late, Yeah he's coming home late
And he's bringing me a surprise,
Dinner's in the kitchen and it's packed in ice
I've waited for a long time
Yeah the slide of my hand is now a quick pull trigger
I reason with my cigarette
And say your hair's on fire, you must have lost your wits, yeah

(Line 1,2) His daddy comes home late everyday, that Robert thinks he's still working at that time.
(Line 3,4) This is a sarcastic statement. His dad never prepared dinner, not even brought home dinner. Robert's dinner was always frozen food in the kitchen, he has to prepare it himself.
(Line 5,6) He's waited a long time to have a gun.
(Line 7,8) His brain went to his cigarette, and his head became the cigarette. His head light up. He is light headed. He no longer has the right reasoning.

III
"All the other kids with the pumped up kicks,
You'd better run, better run, out run my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You better run, better run, faster than my bullet"

(Verse III) Robert is very different from the other kids. All the other kids have good shoes(good future ahead of them). He greatly envies them that he's gonna chase all of them with a gun he got from his father.